Some articles:
When the asteroid hit, it vaporized the surrounding rock, creating the 200-kilometer-wide Chicxulub crater underneath the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the vapor cooled in the atmosphere and condensed into droplets of molten rock. The rest became a cloud of fine dust.
What happened next has been a long-standing question, says planetary scientist Brandon Johnson of Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. Using deposits of asteroid material from North Dakota, Johnson and his collaborators simulated what would have happened as this dust spread around the globe.
The results painted a frightening picture. Molten rock would have rained down with the force of a bullet, generating a lot of heat. Instead of escaping into space, that heat would have been trapped by the dust cloud and radiated back to Earth’s surface. The air would have warmed rapidly, turning the sky red, while any creature that couldn’t take shelter received 17 times the lethal dose of thermal radiation for humans. About an hour later, the radiation would have dissipated, and the dust cloud would have blocked out the sun. The only light would have been from global wildfires spontaneously ignited by the heat.
And, per this article from the Guardian, the Chicxulub asteroid may not have been a one-off:
Detailed scans of an underwater crater off the coast of Guinea in West Africa suggest that it was created when another large asteroid smashed into the planet around the same time at the end of the Cretaceous period.
The violent impact between 65m and 67m years ago produced a crater more than five miles across, the scans reveal, with scientists estimating that the asteroid measured a quarter of a mile wide and struck Earth at nearly 45,000mph.
Though smaller than the asteroid that sparked the mass extinction, it was still large enough to leave scars on the face of the planet. “The new images paint a picture of the catastrophic event,” said Dr Uisdean Nicholson, a marine geologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, who first discovered the Nadir crater in 2022. At the time, the details of the impact were unclear.
[snip]
The researchers cannot pinpoint when the asteroid struck Earth, but the discovery of the crater and its approximate age have prompted speculation that it may have belonged to a cluster of impacts at the end of the Cretaceous period. The asteroid linked to the extinction of the dinosaurs was far larger than the rock that produced the Nadir crater. It left a crater 100 miles wide in what is now Chicxulub on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.
If you think that you are safe from wildfires because you live in a city, Spokane, Washington is showing that it is not necessarily true. The New York Post reports:
The Old Trails Fire ignited Saturday and quickly became one of the most destructive fires in Washington history as powerful winds, drought conditions and extreme heat fueled explosive growth.
Together with several other major fires burning around Spokane, the blazes have destroyed at least 700 structures, scorched roughly 12.5 square miles and prompted evacuation orders affecting about 67,000 people.
Residents allowed back into some neighborhoods Monday were met with scenes of almost unimaginable destruction. Entire streets had been reduced to ash, with burned-out vehicles, twisted metal and collapsed homes stretching block after block. In many cases, only brick chimneys remained standing.
Additionally, "[a]s of Sunday nearly 10,000 customers were without power and another 5,300 customers were without natural gas." The New York Post article indicates that a suspected arsonist has been arrested for setting one of the fires--the Old Trails Fire. (More at this Fox affiliate).
Some recent news from China, including flooding that led to a dam breach; and poisonous snakes escaping from a breeding facility.
VIDEO: "The Floods Were Devastating. Then The Dams Broke."
China Uncensored (12 min.)
On December 1, 1930, a thick fog started to roll into Belgium which eventually covered the entire country as well as large swathes of Europe and the southeast of England. By December 3, 1930, the death toll from the fog in the Meuse Valley in Belgium rose to 64 people. It was particularly devastating in the heavily industrialized Meuse Valley:
The damage was immediate. Within three days, thousands of people in the Meuse Valley were suffering from respiratory problems, notably throat irritation, chest pains, coughing fits, difficulty breathing, increased adrenalin, nausea and vomiting.
Over 60 people suffering from heart or lung disease died in two days. Many of the victims were under 30 years old; the youngest one was only 20 years old and died while walking home from a party.
One of the worst hit areas was the town of Engis, which had already garnered a reputation as Belgium’s most polluted town, where 56 of the deaths happened.
It is not the only time there was a deadly smog, as the same article notes that "the Great Smog Of London in 1952 killed around 12,000 people, according to modern estimates." (See also, "When the smoke clears: The legacy of killer smogs"--American Association for the Advancement of Science).
The video, below, goes over the Meuse Valley incident, a similar incident in the U.S. in 1948, and even looks at a couple incidents in Africa where whole villages were wiped out by noxious gases apparently emitted by volcanoes.
VIDEO: "In 1930, A Mysterious Killer Fog Swept Across Europe"
Swegle Studios (18 min.)
Some links that may be of interest :
In wing shooting, a critical aspect is the mount – bringing the comb of the stock to the cheek under the dominant eye, bringing the gun to your eye line, not ducking your head to see the bead.
In riflery, when crossing a plain in search of small varmints for example, the technique is largely the same -- as it is in combat. Bring the rifle to your eye, don’t duck down to the rifle.
When shooting a handgun, according to an aged document from the American Pistol Institute (now known as Gunsite Academy), the plan for the 250 – Defensive Pistol included students beginning range experience with the mount.
As there are less points of contact with the handgun than long guns, you could argue the mount is more critical. It’s certainly critical when learning the gun.
Some will decry this beginning as “range world,” alleging that one can never do this operationally. Is there something to this? It seems a bit like using the sights. Walt Rauch once told me that the sights on a handgun are like the training wheels on a child’s first bicycle; once you learn the mount through extensive practice, the sights confirm your hold.
First popularized with the Trijicon RMR due to the convex top glass, the guillotine is simply placing the top edge of your MRDS at the base of the target’s neck, like you’re chopping the head off a French noble. Similarly, you can align the edges of the optical body with the shoulders and press.
This method simply lines up the top of the optical window with the top of the target’s head. With an RMR this may look like horns on the head, and with a rounded window you’ll give them some new headgear — right before you turn their face inside out.
Sealed sights work exceptionally well with this method because they have both front and rear windows to line up (sound familiar?). Look for misalignment between your pistol and target by observing shadows in the window itself. The longer the optical body, the more accurate this method will be.
Unlike the American system of naming a cartridge derived from an earlier design—the .25-06 Remington, 7mm-08 Remington and .338-06 A-Square come quickly to mind—where the new bullet diameter comes before the parent cartridge, the British method uses the parent cartridge name before the new bullet diameter. The .450/400 NE is the .450 Nitro Express necked down to hold .400-inch (actually .411-inch) diameter bullets; the .500/465 NE used by Teddy Roosevelt is the .500 Nitro Express cartridge necked down to hold .465-inch-diameter bullets; and so on and so forth. Kreighoff mated the case of the .500 Nitro Express with the abundant bullets of the .416 Rigby, resulting in the .500/416 Nitro Express, a well-balanced cartridge which makes a sound choice for dangerous game.
Looking at the ballistics of the .500/416 NE, you might recognize the formula: a 400-grain .416-inch-diameter bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2,300 to 2,350 fps, generating 4,700 to 4,900 ft.-lbs. of energy at the muzzle. These figures are common to the .416 Rigby, .416 Remington Magnum and .416 Ruger, and are certainly more than adequate for any and all game species on earth. A 400-grain bullet of this nominal diameter possesses a Sectional Density figure of .330; anything above .300 is considered perfectly acceptable to deliver the penetration needed for taking thick-skinned dangerous game, and modern premium bullets are even more effective in the field. In fact, for the visiting sportsman using the services of a Professional Hunter, this formula is just about as perfect as you could ask for, and just might represent the quintessential balance of striking power and ease of shooting, especially in a double rifle which has a little more weight to it.
The
suppressor weighs 3.5 ounces with a 1-inch diameter, keeping it from
upsetting the balance of lightweight rimfire rifles and pistols. The
body is 6061-T6 aluminum with a Type III hardcoat anodized black finish.
Thread pitch is 1/2x28, which covers the vast majority of threaded .22
LR barrels on the market. I have a few .22LRs, and they’re all threaded
in this pitch.
On
the performance side, WSM claims the Legionary 22 reduces sound levels
to 114.10 dB on .22 LR, which works out to roughly 27 dB of noise
reduction compared to unsuppressed fire. That should put it in a
competitive territory for aluminum rimfire suppressors in this price
range. 22s are one of the few rounds I dare to shoot suppressed without
hearing protection, apart from the odd sub-9mm here and now.
Here in Idaho, you can use PCP air rifles to hunt upland game, small game, big game and furbearers. Different caliber restrictions apply depending on the animal you’re pursuing. For example, projectiles must be at least .35 caliber for deer, pronghorn, wolf and black bear, and at least .45 caliber for elk, moose and sheep. The bottom line, whether it’s varmints, game animals or furbearers, it’s legal to pursue with an air rifle here in Idaho.
Being August, I could not manage sub freezing temps, but I did set up a cardboard target behind a very thick pad that I added extra clothing by stuffing it inside to make it even thicker. I set up from 200 yards away and fired.
The military FMJ round had no problem punching through the thick clothing and padding just as I knew it would.
Even from 200 yards the carbine and its ammo said by “experts” to be puny. not only went through the padding with ease, it zipped through the wood and damaged it more than I expected. But it was not done yet.
It traveled another 10 yards and tore into the dry hard packed dirt and rocks behind several inches deep with little deformation to the short stubby 110 ball rounds.
Others have debunked this as well:
Barefoot boots have become a “thing.” The concept is that barefoot shoes/boots allow the foot to react to the ground as it would if the walker was walking barefoot. This strengthens muscles in the feet, bare foot proponents claim, which may have become weakened because of years of wearing shoes. Going barefoot allows the legs and spine to align naturally, proponents further claim, reducing or eliminating back aches, joint issues and other posture-related problems.
A lot of people focus on rod length first, but diameter is often the more important detail.
A
thin ferro rod may still work, especially for occasional use, but
thinner rods usually have less surface area and can wear down faster.
They can also feel less forgiving when your technique is off. If your
angle is not perfect, or if your scraper is not ideal, a small rod can
make the whole process feel more difficult than it needs to be.
A
thicker rod generally gives a little more margin for error. It often
feels easier to control, easier to scrape, and better suited for
repeated use. That does not mean bigger is always better, but it does
mean that ultra-small rods are often best treated as compact backup
tools rather than primary fire starters.
If you are building a main fire kit, choose a rod size that gives you confidence, not just portability.
David Cocke, a structural engineer in California and former president of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, said that a combination of soft soils, tall towers and older concrete structures contributed to the widespread damage, particularly when buildings pancaked, or collapsed floor-by-floor.
“They just don’t have the more modern reinforcing steel connections that we put in those kinds of buildings today,” said Cocke.
Since the 1970s, engineers have known that concrete buildings are particularly susceptible to earthquakes and seek to reinforce new construction with steel. While many rich nations have forced property owners to retrofit or tear down dangerous buildings, many poorer or middle income countries have lagged in enforcing upgrades as they battled more immediate woes.
HD 7977 is a still nearby Sun-like star in the constellation Cassiopeia whose close passage was discovered by the Gaia mission. Approximately 2.5 million years ago, the orbits of the Sun and HD 7977 brought the two stars close together, but exactly how close is still an open question. Gaia data suggest they passed within 4000-25000 astronomical units of one another. Now, Kaib and Raymond have shown that the orbits of long-period comets suggest HD 7977 came within 6000-10000 AU of our Sun, setting off a major shower of new comets into the inner solar system.
As you probably already know, Venezula was struck by two devastating earthquakes yesterday: "A magnitude-7.2 quake struck roughly 100 miles west of Caracas, followed just 39 seconds later by an even bigger 7.5-magnitude temblor, according to the US Geological Survey." The USGS has a model to give rough ranges of the number of fatalities, and that model gives the highest percentage to the death toll being between 10,000 and 100,000. Grimly, though, the model gives higher odds to the fatalities exceeding 100,000 than to their being below 10,000. Photographs and video I have seen show many heavily damaged multi-story structures as well as some buildings that completely collapsed.
The video below has some of the more dramatic video and an overview of how events rolled out. Stefan Burns, who I believe is geophysicist, had a 1.5 hour live stream last night immediately after news of the quake came out that you might find interesting as well.
President Trump has already promised assistance and I'm sure that other countries will also be offering help. And I'm sure that many churches and faith-based NGOs will also be providing assistance. And even if we cannot provide physical assistance, we can pray for the survivors and the souls of those that lost their lives.
VIDEO: "HORROR in Venezuela ! Double M7.5 Earthquake causes STATE OF EMERGENCY - Caracas in RUINS" - On the Pulse with Silki (18 min.)
The world we live in is very different from the one that existed just 15,000 years ago. The first video below brings together a lot of disparate information and presents it as a whole concerning what Earth was like just before the end of the last Ice Age--lower sea levels exposing huge areas of land in Europe and South-East Asia and north of Australia that is, today, underwater. A green Sahara covered with grasslands, lakes, and a network of rivers. A dryer Amazon that was more open scrub land rather than impenetrable jungle. CO2 levels so low that many of the crops we use for food would not prosper.
Of course the Ice Age came to an end, but just as the Earth was warming, the Younger Dryas happened, throwing the northern hemisphere back into a deep Ice Age for 1,000 years before just as abruptly ending. The second video discusses some theories as to what caused the Younger Dryas including the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH), although he leaves out one of the most important bits of evidence: the Carolina Bays and similar structures stretching westward into the heartland of America which record a wide swath of secondary impacts, likely from debris thrown out by the Younger Dryas Impact Event. Antonio Zamora has a YouTube channel devoted to studying the Carolina Bays and the YDIH which I recommend if you have further interest in the topic. Here is the link to an older video from Zamora covering the primary hypothesis that the Carolina Bays are evidence of an impact event.
VIDEO: "The Ice Age World You Don't See"
Curtis Holland | Reviewing the Record (21 min.)
VIDEO: "The Younger Dryas: The Last Great Mystery Before Modern History"
Curtis Holland | Reviewing the Record (21 min.)
Some links that may be of interest:
So, I recently had the pleasure of attending “Plinkapalooza” at Range Ready in Robert, LA; you might recognize this as the home range of the Gun Talk crew. “Plinkapalooza” was designed to be a celebration of everything rimfire; we had handguns, carbines and rifles in everything from .17 HMR through .22 Mag., with a heavy emphasis on .22 LR. Events were tailored around showcasing the abilities of these firearms and ammunition, but the most important thing was for it to be fun.
Folks, when I’m telling you it was a LOT of fun, I’m not exaggerating. I’m probably understating it.
Sometimes we get caught up in the very serious nature of firearms to the exclusion of that fun factor, and it’s good to be reminded that shooting is fun. Obviously, no matter your reason for hitting the range, safety is paramount; beyond that, though, it’s a good thing to take a moment to actually enjoy going to the range. Yes, working with your concealed-carry rig is important for self-defense, training with your rifle keeps perishable long-range skills sharp and practicing with your shotgun keeps your wingshooting fresh. But, let’s be frank—none of these is as fun as plinking informal targets with a .22 rifle.
Right now, 1,000 rounds of cheap 9mm FMJ ammunition will cost you about 36 cents per shot. That works out to $360 for the lot. Assuming you already have 1,000 9mm cases, the rest of the components—bullets, powder, and primers—to reload that many rounds will run you about $295. That means you’ll save about $65. If you’re talking rifle cartridges, the components are a bit more expensive, but you can also save a bit more. If you already have the brass to reload 1000 rounds of .223 Remington FMJ ammo, the rest will cost you around $320. Compared to the least expensive factory ammo, you’ll save about $180.
That's great if you already have the equipment. But, if not...
That said, you’ll also need to shell out for reloading tools to make the ammo. A good progressive press will run you at least $500. A single-stage press is much less expensive; the RCBS Partner Press, for example, is only $127. Either way, you’re going to need some additional tools and can expect to pay as much as $200 for them. If you go the single-stage route, a press that comes in a kit is your best bet, but you’re still looking at least $250 for a minimalist set up.
The author sums up:
Given these numbers, and at an average savings of about $120 per thousand rounds, if you go the single-stage route, you’ll have to load around 3,000 rounds to break even on the components plus the cost of the tools. If you’re working with a progressive press, you’re going to have to produce about 7,000 rounds to do that same. Either way, over the course of a year you’ll have to shoot between 250 and 500 rounds per month to make use of your investment. And remember, these numbers only apply if you already have the empty cases. If you don’t, brass will cost you between 10 and 20 cents each, adding another $100 to $200 to every thousand rounds, which could completely offset your savings. (Financially, by the way, you’re better off buying ammunition and using the fired brass.)
To reduce cost, you can look for used reloading equipment. Reloading tools do not hold their value as well as firearms; often you can find killer deals. I’ve known more than several shooters who’ve scored a truck load of reloading equipment from people who just wanted their ex-spouse’s crap out of the house. You can also partner up with a buddy and split the cost on tools and even components.
I sort of lucked into a great deal on my reloading equipment: a lady I worked with had bought a pretty good set up for her husband, an avid hunter, but it turned out he had no interest in reloading, so she sold it to me for about half of the cost. And I also used the "buy the loaded ammunition and save the brass" route to acquire much of my brass, together with long hours visiting different popular shooting locations on public land and picking up the brass others had left behind. However, I have on occasion purchased new brass, such as when I started loading for the .300 BLK. In that instance, I initially bought some Winchester brass, but switched to Starline because it was less expensive. I like Starline.
Federal Ammunition announced this week that it has entered into an agreement that allows the U.S. Army to utilize its patented Peak Alloy ammunition case technology for use in multiple cartridges and weapon systems. Terms specify certain conditions necessary prior to granting government purpose rights, such as the delivery of 40 million cases that feature the cutting-edge technology.
Peak Alloy first appeared on the commercial market in 2025 when Federal Ammunition introduced it in the company’s all new 7 mm Backcountry cartridge. The material was used in the high-strength, proprietary steel alloy casing, which enables significantly higher chamber pressure than traditional brass—in excess of 80,000 PSI. As a result, bullet velocity increases in smaller, lighter, shorter-barreled rifles typically configured for suppressors.
“At higher pressures, Peak Alloy cases ‘hang on’ in the chamber and absorb some of that rearward force, thereby limiting the amount transferred to the firearm to a level it was built to manage,” Federal Rifle Ammunition Managing Engineer Jake Burns explained to NRA Editor Emeritus John Zent in 2025. “That’s where the ‘magic’ happens.”
There are several options to look for here, starting with the Husqvarna 1640s I mentioned above. These are made in America-friendly calibers like .30-06 or .270, as well as calibers that are more common in Scandinavia, like 6.5x55mm, 7x57mm, 9.3x62mm or 8x57mm. They also came chambered for belted magnums, including 358 Norma Magnum and 7mm Remington Magnum, although these are less common.
Why buy a 1640? Because this Mauser-pattern bolt action, built from the early 1950s until the late 1960s, was built to a quality standard that few other commercial rifles for the mass market could match (we’re talking the equivalent of a pre-’64 Winchester Model 70 here, the cream of the crop for the working man). And the 1640 was a bit of an odd design, too; not a large-ring Mauser 98 action, but a small-ring full-length controlled-feed version of the Mauser 98.
This was a natural evolution of Sweden’s long-standing production of small-ring Mausers. While some might question the small-ring action’s capability to handle full-power loads, let alone belted magnums, the 1640 series was made of fine, modern steel and these guns can handle the heat.
And even though they’re basically laid out like a Mauser 98, Husqvarna baked some improvements into the design, particularly the slide-safety on the side of the action, instead of the back-of-the-bolt design the original Mauser 98 used, which doesn't work well with a low-mounted scope—the safety bumps into the rear eyepiece when it’s rotated. Not so on the Husqvarna 1640.
Unmanned vehicles are particularly suited to the sniper’s two main tasks of reconnaissance and targeted killing. Their key advantages include their bigger visual range, maneuverability and expendability: If the mission fails, the loss is a craft worth thousands of dollars rather than a life.
Ukraine still uses snipers. The U.S. also continues to train them. But in Ukraine they are being used less and in a changing role that is becoming more dangerous. Many snipers, like Kovalskiy, believe the era of sniping has passed.
“Drones are just more effective and cost less,” said Kovalskiy, who is part of a military counterintelligence division of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU.
What makes a lahar so perilous? Start with its unpredictable behavior, as the slurry of sediment, rocky debris, and water begins at the top of a volcano and travels downslope, moving very quickly and covering large distances. In mere minutes, a lahar can flow down a volcano and level anything in its path. “They are complex phenomena that change a lot during transport,” National Autonomous University of Mexico volcanologist Lizeth Caballero GarcÃa, told Pop Mech in this feature story. “They can grow, they can dilute.”
And there’s good reason why United States Geological Survey (USGS) researchers have deemed lahars the “most threatening hazard” in the Cascades: They pose a direct danger to surrounding communities. For instance, around 150,000 people live in Washington’s Pierce County—in the middle of the projected lahar path of volcano Mount Rainier, located just around 60 miles from Seattle.
The 1877 El Niño was one of the most severe climate events in recorded history, triggering a global humanitarian disaster known as The Great Famine.
Climate reconstructions suggest water temperatures in a key region of the Pacific Ocean rose by 2.7°C (4.86°F), which caused disruption to rainfall patterns around the world.
Estimates indicate the resulting scarcity of food and disease outbreaks killed up to four per cent of the Earth's population at the time.
That would be the equivalent of at least 250 million people if it happened today.
Now, forecasts suggest water temperatures could potentially exceed 3°C (5.4°F) above average later this year – making the upcoming super El Niño even more powerful than the one nearly 150 years ago.
'Simultaneous multiyear droughts similar to those in the 1870s could happen again,' Deepti Singh, associate professor at Washington State University, told the Washington Post.
[snip]
Many climate historians think the 1877–78 event reshaped world history and some consider it one of the first 'truly global climate disasters'.
Drought conditions, which had already been developing for several years, were intensified – causing crops to collapse across huge areas.
India was among the worst–hit regions as monsoon rains disappeared, while Northern China suffered devastating dry spells that led to harvest failures.
In Brazil rivers dried up and agriculture collapsed, while parts of Africa, southeast Asia and Australia also experienced severe drought and forest fires.
The resulting famine weakened societies, intensified colonial control in some regions, accelerated migration and exposed how vulnerable global food systems were to climate shocks.
There were also outbreaks of malaria, plague, dysentery, smallpox and cholera across weakened populations.
A 2023 article in The Current: "A prehistoric cosmic airburst preceded the advent of agriculture in the Levant." An excerpt:
Agriculture in Syria started with a bang 12,800 years ago as a fragmented comet slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion and subsequent environmental changes forced hunter-gatherers in the prehistoric settlement of Abu Hureyra to adopt agricultural practices to boost their chances for survival.
That’s the assertion made by an international group of scientists in one of four related research papers, all appearing in the journal Science Open: Airbursts and Cratering Impacts. The papers are the latest results in the investigation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, the idea that an anomalous cooling of the Earth almost 13 millennia ago was the result of a cosmic impact.
“In this general region, there was a change from more humid conditions that were forested and with diverse sources of food for hunter-gatherers, to drier, cooler conditions when they could no longer subsist only as hunter-gatherers,” said Earth scientist James Kennett, a professor emeritus of UC Santa Barbara. The settlement at Abu Hureyra is famous among archaeologists for its evidence of the earliest known transition from foraging to farming. “The villagers started to cultivate barley, wheat and legumes,” he noted. “This is what the evidence clearly shows.”
Read the whole thing. No reason a similar disaster could not happen again.
"Trump orders FEMA aid to Washington as residents cling to car roofs in catastrophic state flooding"--Daily Mail. From the lede:
Washington is under a state of emergency after days of torrential rain unleashed historic floods, forcing thousands from their homes and leaving residents stranded on rooftops of cars and houses.
Governor Bob Ferguson announced Thursday that President Trump had ordered emergency FEMA aid for the state, saying on X that he 'expressed my thanks to Secretary Noem on behalf of the people of Washington during this extremely challenging time.'
Flood warnings in the western part of the state have put 100,000 residents in Skagit and Snohomish counties under Level 3 evacuation orders, meaning they were told to 'leave now.'
Reports are that "Tehran may be evacuated as taps run dry due to water crisis."
In early November, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian warned: “If it doesn’t rain in Tehran by late November, we’ll have to ration water. And if it still doesn’t rain, we’ll have to evacuate Tehran.”
Typically, rain should start falling in Iran in autumn, following Iran’s hot summer. But the September to November period just gone is the driest the country has seen in half a century, the National Weather Forecasting Centre has reported. Rainfall has been 89 per cent below the long-term average.
Mr Pezeshkian described the situation as “extremely critical”, citing reports that Tehran’s dam reservoirs have fallen to their lowest level in 60 years, some as low as 10 per cent of capacity. Officials say that in the east of Tehran, the Latyan Dam – one of five key reservoirs – is only about 9 per cent full. The Karaj dam, which supplies a quarter of Tehran’s drinking water, is 8 per cent full.
And if they are like U.S. cities, that remaining water is for important things like golf courses.
An article from SciTech Daily relates "Scientists Uncover New Evidence of Ancient Airbursts That Ravaged Earth Without Leaving Craters." It not only goes over additional evidence supporting a Younger Dryas impact event, but other airburst events. The article begins:
Emerging evidence suggests Earth has endured far more hidden cosmic explosions than once believed.
Touchdown airbursts, a form of cosmic impact that may occur more often than the crater-producing events known for wiping out the dinosaurs, are still not fully understood. UC Santa Barbara Earth Science Emeritus Professor James Kennett and his colleagues continue to argue that these powerful explosions deserve far more scientific attention.
“Touchdown events can cause extreme damage through very high temperatures and pressures,” Kennett said. “And yet they don’t necessarily form a crater, or they form ephemeral surface disturbances, but they’re not the classic major craters that come from direct impacts.”
Four recently released studies from Kennett and his co-authors highlight evidence for multiple airbursts from different periods in Earth’s past. In these events, an incoming object such as a comet detonates above the surface and releases intense heat and shockwaves. The researchers documented new findings from locations ranging from the deep North Atlantic to the remains of an ancient desert community. Their work points to materials that form only under extreme conditions, such as rare comet-derived elements, molten glass, and spherules produced by high-temperature melting of Earth materials, and shocked quartz that contains distinctive fracture patterns.
It then goes on to describe impact proxies found in Baffin Bay, just west of Greenland, that support the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH). It is the first time evidence for the YDIH has been found in marine record. Researchers also examined sediment from the Tunguska event as an example of an touchdown event and revisited evidence from Tall el-Hammam, "the site of a major ancient city in the Levant that is thought to have experienced a similar-sized event about 3,600 years ago."
“The interesting thing about Tunguska is that it is the only recorded historical touchdown event,” Kennett said, and indeed, there are documented eyewitness reports of a fireball in the sky, and photographs of flattened trees. However, for all the studies of the fallen trees and the soils at the impact site, there had up until now been little effort in search of cosmic impact proxies. This study is the first comprehensive evidence of airburst/impact proxies at Tunguska.
In this video, Ben Davidson discusses the tsunami simulation video from the other day. The first part of the video is just the tsunami simulation as shown earlier--the discussion starts just after the 3 minute mark.
VIDEO: "The Tsunami Simulation - Discussion"
SpaceWeatherNews (S0) (9 min.)
From Science Alert: "Strange Glass in Australia Reveals a Massive Impact We Never Knew About". They believe this was from a "giant impact" from about 11 million years ago, but no impact crater has been identified. Also:
The desert across southern Australia is positively strewn with tiny beads of impact glass called tektites. It's part of a region known as the Australasian strewnfield, the fallout created by a giant meteorite impact thought to have hit somewhere in Southeast Asia around 788,000 years ago.
Back in August, Discovery Magazine published an article entitled "A Comet Could’ve Caused Rapid Climate Shift Around 12,800 Years Ago," which provides a summary of the theory that an impact event caused the Younger Dryas--a rapid cooling of the planet approximately 12,000 years ago just as the Earth had been warming from the preceding ice age. Established scientists have fought this theory tooth and nail since it was first proposed in the early 2000s, but the evidence supporting it continues to build while the arguments against it continue to fall. An excerpt:
Dropping around 10 degrees Celsius in the span of a single year, then stabilizing at a lower level for around 1,200 years, the temperatures of the Northern Hemisphere were abnormally cold throughout the course of the Younger Dryas, potentially prompting consequences for the plants, animals, and human civilizations that lived there. But whatever the consequences, their cause is typically attributed to an increase in glacial meltwater, which would have weakened the ocean currents that transport warm water throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
While some scientists suspect that this glacial meltwater arose without a comet, others say that one of these celestial ice clumps created the melt. Indeed, the proponents of the “Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis” posit that the debris from a disintegrating comet destabilized Earth’s ice sheet, causing the increase in glacial meltwater that disrupted the ocean’s circulation.
The hypothesis has found some support in terrestrial sediment and ice cores, though it has lacked evidence from deep-sea ones. Hoping to gather this evidence, the authors of the new study investigated the geochemistry of four deep-sea sediment cores from the time of the Younger Dryas event, taken from the floor of Baffin Bay.
Using an assortment of microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, which offered a closer look at the cores and their chemical compositions, the researchers concluded that the sediments contained material from a comet, based on “the morphology and composition of the microparticles found,” Tselmovich said in the release.
“The amount of comet dust in the atmosphere was enough to cause a short-term ‘impact winter,’ followed by a 1,400-year cooling period,” he added in the release. “The results obtained confirm the hypothesis that the Earth collided with a large comet about 12,800 years ago.”
Space Weather News (fka Suspicious Observers) has narrowed down the predicted time frame for the next magnetic incursion, which he now believes will be in the 2043 - 2045 time frame based on the periodicity of acceleration of the movement of the magnetic pole and increases in auroral activity seen over the past couple of decades.
VIDEO: "Pole Shift Timeline - Narrowing Down The Disaster"
SpaceWeatherNews (S0) (2-1/2 min.)
From the Daily Mail: "Scientists say catastrophic earthquake nicknamed 'The Big One' could actually be TWO following terrifying discovery." From the lede:
California's fearsome 'Big One' earthquake looks increasingly like it might actually be two, scientists have warned.
Researchers uncovered the strongest evidence yet that a tremor along the infamous Cascadia Subduction Zone could trigger another along the San Andreas Fault line.
The tandem earthquakes could happen just minutes apart according to a study by Geosphere, stretching emergency response services and spelling disaster for millions of people.
So, potentially, we could see major earthquake damage all along the most densely populated portions of the West Coast including Seattle to Portland and San Francisco through Southern California.
OzGeology has a video that goes into more detail about the North Sea crater I posted about yesterday, including how it originally was thought to be a massive collapsed salt dome. OzGeology has other videos about impacts and resulting tsunamis, so if this stuff interests you, you should check out his channel.
VIDEO: "A New Asteroid Crater Was Just Discovered in Europe"
OzGeology (8 min.)
Phys.org reports that "Scientists find proof that an asteroid hit the North Sea more than 43 million years ago." Per the article, new evidence has confirmed that the Silverpit Crater in the southern North Sea was caused by a comet or asteroid impact 43 to 46 million years ago. "The Silverpit Crater sits 700 meters below the seabed in the North Sea, about 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire," the article relates, and is 3 km wide and surrounded by a 20 km wide zone of circular faults. I suspect that these large impacts have happened far more often than scientists suspect.
